Spin-wind system

ABSTRACT

An automatic yarn twisting or spinning and rewinding system has at least one spinning frame with opposite banks of spinning stations. A pair of tenders, one for each of the banks, is provided for patrolling the stations and servicing any of the stations requiring attention. Upon stopping at a station requiring servicing, the tender doffs the bobbin (supply unit) at the station and donns an empty bobbin and starts the strand winding onto the empty bobbin. Thus there is a continuous supply of filled bobbins. The filled bobbins are conveyed to a readier of a winding machine at an end of the spinning frame or frames and, responsive to demand of the winding machine, the filled bobbins are deposited in the readier where they are suitably processed and then delivered to winding stations of the winding machine. The system is regulated so that the winding machine continuously uses the filled bobbins at substantially the same rate at which they are doffed from the spinning frame. After the yarn on the bobbins has been wound onto packages the bobbins may be ejected from the winding machine and are transferred back to a tender which thereupon donns the empty bobbins, as required, at the spinning stations.

United States Patent 1 Nelson et al.

[ Oct. 30, 1973 SPIN-WIND SYSTEM [75] Inventors: John Nelson, North Kingstown;

Thomas E. Pitts, Cranston, both of R].

[73] Assignee: Leesona Corporation, Warwick, R1.

[22] Filed: Aug. 16, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 171,945

Primary Examiner-John Petrakes Assistant ExaminerCharles Gorenstein Att0rney-Albert P. Davis et al.

[57] ABSTRACT An automatic yarn twisting or spinning and rewinding system has at least one spinning frame with opposite banks of spinning stations. A pair of tenders, one for each of the banks, is provided for patrolling the stations and servicing any of the stationsrequiring attention. Upon stopping at a station requiring servicing, the tender doffs the bobbin (supply unit) at the station and donns an empty bobbin and starts the strand winding onto the empty bobbin. Thus there is a continuous supply of filled bobbins. The filled bobbins are conveyed to a readier of a winding machine at an end of the spinning frame or frames and, responsive to demand of the winding machine, the filled bobbins are deposited in the readier where they are suitably processed and then delivered to winding stations of the winding machine. The system is regulated so that the winding machine continuously uses the filled bobbins at substantially the same rate at which they are doffed from the spinning frame. After the yarn on the bobbins has been wound onto packagesthe bobbins may be ejected from the winding machine and are transferred back to a tender which thereupon donns the empty bobbins, as required, at the spinning stations.

10 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PMFNTEDIIBT 30 I815 INVENTORS JOH N NELSON SPIN-WIND SYSTEM This invention relates to a strand handling system and, more particularly, to a system for spinning or twisting strands into supply units which are consecutively transferred to a winding machine and rewound into packages at substantially the same rate at which they are formed.

DEFINITIONS As used herein the term twisting machine refers to a twister or a spinning frame, or any other similar mechanism. The term bobbin means a unit of strand material formed so that it may be readily moved from place to place, and includes any core or other member on which the strand material is or may be formed. The term filled bobbin means a bobbin having strand material thereon, whether full or partially full. The term empty bobbin means a bobbin devoid or substantially devoid of strand materiahThe term yarn is employed in a general sense to apply to all kinds of strand material either textile or otherwise.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Various systems have been proposed for automatically recirculating bobbins between a spinning machine and a winding machine by gang doffing a set of bobbins from the spinning machine and storing the bobbins untilthey are required by the winding machine. Such systems are subject to the inherent limitations of gang doffing which is generally considered to be less efficient than a random" or continuous doffing system as described in a Leesona Corporation patent, U. S. Pat. No. 3,403,866, granted Oct. 1, 1968. In the patented system servicing tenders provide back and fourth patrolling along banks of spinning stations and stop at any station requiring servicing. The bobbin wound at the station is doffed, an empty bobbin is donned, and a strand of roving spun into yarn is started winding onto the newly donned bobbin, whereupon the tender continues its back and fourth patrolling of the stations.

A new system includes a tender which patrols one side of one or more spinning frames and swings about the ends of the frame or frames to patrol the other side thereof.

Various types of winding machines are well known in the art and include machines having stationary winding stations each of which may be equipped with a knotter and other servicing equipment or, alternatively, may be serviced by a traveling tender. Still another type of winding machine has a plurality of winding stations which travel past a fixed servicing station at which empty bobbins are ejected and filled supply bobbins are donned onto the stations and winding is started onto an associated package.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention, in brief, is directed to a twisting machine such as a twister or a spinning frame with provision for successively servicing stations thereof and consecutively transferring doffed, filled supply bobbins (units) from the stations to any suitable type of winding machine having provision for donning the supply bobbins on stations of the winding machine and starting the strand material from each supply bobbin winding onto a package being formed at the station. The system provides for the winding machine utilizing the supply bobbins at substantially the rate at which they are doffed from the twisting machine. In the event that the bobbins have reuseable cores the system may also return empty bobbin cores ejected from the winding machine to the twisting machine for donning thereon, thus effectively eliminating the need for any substantial bobbin storage between the twisting machine and the winding machine.

It is a primary object of this invention to provide a new and useful strand handling system.

A more specific object is provision of a system for processing strand material to form packages, the system including first mechanism for concurrently forming the strand material into a plurality of supply units and generally completing formation of each of the supply units at successive intervals, second mechanism for successively receiving the supply units and concurrently forming a plurality of the packages from the supply units at substantially the same rate at which the supply units are completed by the first mechanism, and third mechanism for successively removing each of the supply units from the first mechanism and substantially continually transferring the supply units to the second mechanism. A related object is provision for transferring ejected supply units from the second mechanism back to the first mechanism to again be formed into useable supply units.

These and other objects and advantages of the inventionwill be apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a foreshortened, schematic, plan view of a preferred embodiment of the invention, with parts broken away and removed for clearer illustration; and

FIG. 2 is a foreshortened, schematic elevational view of the system shown in FIG. 1, with parts broken away and removed for clearer illustration.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the drawing the system is illustrated as including a plurality of typical spinning frames 10 having their opposite banks 12 of spinning stations 14 aligned. A pair of tenders 16, one for patrolling the stations 14 of each of the opposite banks 12, is provided as disclosed in the aforementioned patent. The tenders l6 automatically stop at any of the stations 14 of the associated bank 12 requiring servicing, and upon stopping at a station 14 the tender 16 normally doffs a filled supply unit or bobbin l8 and donns an empty core 20 of a bobbin and starts a strand of roving spun into yarm 22 winding onto the donned bobbin.

Each of the doffed (filled) bobbins 18 is deposited onto a filled bobbin portion 24 of a conveyor belt system 26. The tender 16 receives a core of an empty bobbin 20 from an empty bobbin portion 28 of the conveyor belt system 26 and carries the empty bobbin 20 to a position for donning onto another spinning station 14 requiring servicing, for example as in more fully disclosed in a co-pending commonly assigned United States patent application, Ser. No. 863,858, filed Oct. 6, 1969, now US. Pat. No. 3,627,107 and incorporated by reference.

shown) responsive to demand of a winding machine 34 for a bobbin. Upon operation of the elevator 32 a filled bobbin 18 is elevated to an upper discharge end of the elevator and drops into a declining chute 36 which deposits the bobbin in suitable handling mechanism 38 (readier and/or knotter) of the winding machine 34 for subsequent passage through a chute 40 for donning at one of a plurality of winding stations 42 (FIG. 2) of the winding machine.

Any suitable control system may be provided for operating the filled bobbin elevating conveyor 32. For example this conveyor may be operated by the same control system of the winding machine 34 which operates the handling mechanism 38.

While any type of winding machine may be provided, as illustrated in the drawing, the winding machine 34 is of the traveling winding station type in which the stations 42 move in a continuous path and stop at the bobbin handling mechanism 38 whereeach station may eject a spent supply bobbin 20 and receive a filled supply bobbin 18, and then proceed to travel in the continuous path while winding their packages 44.

The ejected bobbins 20 pass through a declining chute 46 (FIG. 1) and are deposited on an elevating conveyor belt 48 which may be constantly driven.

In order to avoid a build-up of unuseable bobbins in the spin-wind system a bobbin sorting system may be provided For example, this sorting system may be the same as that disclosed in a copending Leesona Corporation patent application, United States Ser. No. 857,848, filed Sept. 15, 1969, now US. Pat. No. 3,606,0l2. Such sorting system includes any suitable type of bobbin sorter 50 having a chute 52 (FIG. 1) for receiving the ejected bobbins 20 from the conveyor 48. After being sorted, empty ones of the bobbins are delivered through a cute 54 (FIG. 1) to the empty bobbin portion 28 of the conveyor belt system 26 of the spinning frames 10. Filled ones of the ejected bobbins 20 are delivered from the sorter through a chute 56 to the filled bobbin portion 24 of the conveyor belt system 26 for return to the bobbin handling mechanism 38. The mechanism 38 may be equipped to inspect the bobbins and to discharge through a chute 58 any bobbins which are not suitable for transfer to the winding stations 42. From the chute 58 the bobbins failing to pass inspection are deposited in a bin 60 for manual inspection and correction of the difficulty and are returned to the appropriate conveyor portion 24 or 28 of the spin-wind system.

Either the number of stations of the winding machine 34 or the spinning frames may be regulated so that these machines operate at substantially the same bobbin handling rate.

While this invention has been described with reference to a particular embodiment in a particular environment, various changes may be apparent to one skilled in the art and the invention is therefore not to be limited to such embodiment or environment except as set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is: 1

1. Apparatus for processing yarn comprising, first means for simultaneously winding yarn into a plurality of individual supply bobbins, second means having a plurality of supply bobbin unwinding positions and being adapted to receive said individual bobbins at said unwinding positions and simultaneously rewind said bobbins into yarn packages at substantially the same rate at which said bobbins are wound by said first means, and handling means for doffing each of said individual supply bobbins from said first means after each said supply bobbin has been wound with yarn and substantially continuously and individually moving each of said individual supply bobbins from said first means to a one of said unwinding positions of said second means while precluding substantial storage of each of said individual supply bobbins after its doffing from said first means.

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said first means includes mechanism for twisting yarn.

3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said second means includes a plurality of winding stations, each of said stations having an associated supply bobbin unwinding position, and each said unwinding position having bobbin mounting means for receiving and supporting at least one of said supply bobbins in a location for unwinding the yarn therefrom to form a yarn package.

4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 wherein said second means includes means for ejecting each said bobbin from its unwinding position after the yarn thereon has been unwound therefrom, and said handling means includes means for transferring each said ejected bobbin from said second means to said first means.

5. Apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein said handling means includes means for conveying each of said ejected bobbins from said second means to said first means in generally the same order in which the bobbins are ejected from said second means.

6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein said handling means includes inspecting means operable to receive said ejected bobbins and segregate therefrom bobbins having a predetermined amount of yarn thereon.

7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said handling means includes doffing means for removing each of said bobbins from said first means after each said bobbin is wound, and conveying means for transferring each of said bobbins to said second means generally in the order in which each of said bobbins is doffed from said first means.

8. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said handling means includes a readier for receiving each said bobbin during its transfer from said first means to said second means to thereby ready each said bobbin for unwinding of the yarn thereon.

9. A method for processing yarn comprising the steps of, simultaneously winding yarn to form a plurality of individual supply bobbins, individually transferring each said individual bobbin after winding of yarn thereon to a locus for unwinding of the yarn therefrom while precluding substantial storage of each of said individual bobbins after winding and during said transfer to said locus, and maintaining the rate at which said bobbins are wound with yarn in substantially constant proportion with the rate at which said bobbins are unwound.

10. The method as set forth in claim 4 including the step of ejecting each of said bobbins from said locus after the yarn thereon has been unwound, and conveying each of said ejected bobbins away from said locus for winding of a fresh supply of yarn thereon. 

1. Apparatus for processing yarn comprising, first means for simultaneously winding yarn into a plurality of individual supply bobbins, second means having a plurality of supply bobbin unwinding positions and being adapted to receive said individual bobbins at said unwinding positions and simultaneously rewind said bobbins into yarn packages at substantially the same rate at which said bobbins are wound by said first means, and handling means for doffing each of said individual supply bobbins from said first means after each said supply bobbin has been wound with yarn aNd substantially continuously and individually moving each of said individual supply bobbins from said first means to a one of said unwinding positions of said second means while precluding substantial storage of each of said individual supply bobbins after its doffing from said first means.
 2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said first means includes mechanism for twisting yarn.
 3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said second means includes a plurality of winding stations, each of said stations having an associated supply bobbin unwinding position, and each said unwinding position having bobbin mounting means for receiving and supporting at least one of said supply bobbins in a location for unwinding the yarn therefrom to form a yarn package.
 4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 wherein said second means includes means for ejecting each said bobbin from its unwinding position after the yarn thereon has been unwound therefrom, and said handling means includes means for transferring each said ejected bobbin from said second means to said first means.
 5. Apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein said handling means includes means for conveying each of said ejected bobbins from said second means to said first means in generally the same order in which the bobbins are ejected from said second means.
 6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein said handling means includes inspecting means operable to receive said ejected bobbins and segregate therefrom bobbins having a predetermined amount of yarn thereon.
 7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said handling means includes doffing means for removing each of said bobbins from said first means after each said bobbin is wound, and conveying means for transferring each of said bobbins to said second means generally in the order in which each of said bobbins is doffed from said first means.
 8. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said handling means includes a readier for receiving each said bobbin during its transfer from said first means to said second means to thereby ready each said bobbin for unwinding of the yarn thereon.
 9. A method for processing yarn comprising the steps of, simultaneously winding yarn to form a plurality of individual supply bobbins, individually transferring each said individual bobbin after winding of yarn thereon to a locus for unwinding of the yarn therefrom while precluding substantial storage of each of said individual bobbins after winding and during said transfer to said locus, and maintaining the rate at which said bobbins are wound with yarn in substantially constant proportion with the rate at which said bobbins are unwound.
 10. The method as set forth in claim 9 including the step of ejecting each of said bobbins from said locus after the yarn thereon has been unwound, and conveying each of said ejected bobbins away from said locus for winding of a fresh supply of yarn thereon. 